The ability to perform modern surgical procedures is made possible, in part, by the development of increasing advanced electrically controlled and operated surgical equipment. Today, modern electrically operated surgical and medical equipment are able to perform such functions as: precisely regulate mechanically, acoustically, electrically and/or optically actuated surgical instruments; apply and remove both liquid and gaseous state fluids contained within a surgical site; identify where a surgical instrument is within a patient even though the instrument is concealed to the human eye; and/or display and/or record images of the surgical site
A common component in each of the foregoing types of surgical equipment is the control console. This control console is typically in the form of a housing in which is contained the circuitry that either controls another component and/or that performs the signal processing function of the equipment. Often, these control consoles are provided with touch screen displays that perform two functions. First, these displays serve as monitors on which information regarding the state of the equipment and/or information gathered by the equipment is presented. Secondly, these displays function as data entry devices through which the surgeon and other medical personnel enter commands and/or data to the equipment. Typically, images of buttons are presented on these displays. The portions of these displays on which the buttons are presented are depressed by the medical personnel to enter the command and/or data. An advantage of these control consoles is that they can be configured so that their touch screens, at any given instant, only present information and/or buttons that are immediate of concern the medical personnel. This prevents the personnel from having to perceive visually presented information that is not relevant to the surgical procedure at hand and that can be potentially distracting.
A disadvantage of present control consoles for surgical/medical devices is that their touch screens are statically mounted to the rest of the console. Consequently, depending where a console is positioned, the medical personnel may have to strain to view the touch screen and/or to depress the buttons presented on it. Sometimes this strain is caused by the physical position of the control console relative to the medical personnel. At other times, this strain, particularly the eyestrain, is due to the fact that light present in the operating room places a glare on the touch screen that may make it difficult to view some of the images presented on the screen.
The above problems may occur with some control consoles because these consoles are often located and relocated in different positions in an operating room. For example, some consoles are seated on carts in the operating room. The position of the console on the cart or the position of the cart itself may change from surgical procedure-to-surgical procedure in order to accommodate for different types of equipment used to perform different surgical procedures and/or the individual equipment placement preferences of the surgeons performing the various procedures. Alternatively, these consoles are sometimes mounted on adjustably positioned booms in an operating room. These booms allow the equipment they hold to be moved both horizontally and vertically. Thus, when the control console is in one position, it may be relatively easy to view and depress its touch screen. However, if it is necessary or desirable to move the control console to an alternative position, the images presented on their touch screens may be difficult to discern and their buttons difficult to depress.